Education & Policy in Prevention

Drug abuse prevention traditionally has employed two major strategies: prevention education and/or policy or regulation, according to Dr. Michael Goodstadt, Acting Director of the Centre for Health Promotion at the University of Toronto. These two alternatives reflect opposite underlying assumptions. Education strategies reflect trust in the rationality, reasonableness, and goodness of young people. While legal/policy strategies reflect pessimism, assuming that coercive control is needed for a significant proportion of the population. Dr. Goodstadt examines the effectiveness of both approaches. Two conclusions summarize the review of educational and policy strategies: (1) neither traditional ATOD education curricula nor school policies by themselves will effectively prevent ATOD abuse; (2) education and school policies must incorporate the norms of the community into their planning and implementation.

While education and school policies appear to conflict, research and theory related to both argue for their joint development and implementation in school settings. Either strategy alone will be ineffective.